The Oirats: ethnocultural component of politonym and modern ethnohistorical community outline

Last one and a half century there assembled a total combination of unsolved problems connected to the Oirat ethnonym origin and attribution. It is mentioned for the first time in Rashid-al-Din's «Compendium of Chronicles». Historians determined «Vosmirechye» (the Oirat settlement region) in different ways comparing it with the Enisey uppers and the Angara territory uniting these regions in one. There are four versions of the Oirat ethnonym origin. The first one says that the word «oirat» having Mongolian oir («nearby») as base means «a near one», «an ally» (N.Ya. Bichurin, A. Remyuza, and I.Ya. Shmidt). A second version (D. Banzarov) tells about oirat origin not from oir but from formation of two words oi-arat, that corresponds with Rashid-al-Din's oin irgen («forestdwellers»). A third version (G.I. Ramstedt) supposes oirat and oguz ethnonyms coming out from a general form ogizan/ogiz, so ethnonym itself is not translatable. A last version belongs to N.N. Ubushaev, who considers oirat ethnonym to have totem origin in the sense of «wolf». S.K. Hoit puts into Oirat group not only Mongolian speaking descendants of a medieval ethnopolitical consolidation but also some modern Turkic speaking ethnic communities (the Tuvinians, the Khotons, the Altai people). The last ones named itself the Oirats at certain stages of development. N.V. Ekeev includes only Mongolian speaking ethnic communities into Oirat cultural and linguistic formation. Modern ethnohis-torical Oirat consolidation consists of Western Mongolian ethnic groups subjected to assimilation least of all. Common historical memory was a source of united Oirat state revival idea in the conditions of centralized state power absence in the beginning of the 20 century. Eth-nopolitonym oirat was inherited by national elite and became ethno-uniting for various Turkic speaking groups of Sayano-Altai Russian part. This time Altai ethnopolitical environment shows establishing contacts with Oirat descendants living in China. N.A. Tadina reports that oirat is still an ethnopolitical symbol of medieval power in Altai everyday life. Thus ethnonym «oirat» can be useful to medieval consolidation exclusively, any attempt undertaken by national elite to unite all Turkic and Mongolian communities whose ancestors were members of «Derben Oirat» are completely constructivistic. Nowadays ethnonym «oirat» has become a historical fact extensively used in literature and ignored in state national political discourse of Mongolia. As a result of presented cogitations «the Oirat traditions» conception outlines appear. We understand it as different aspects of ethnocultural heritage of the Oirat medieval ethnopolitical consolidation and meet them among modern Turkic people and Mongolians of Sayano-Altai.

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